Many women struggle to access training and information, or secure the capital needed to grow their enterprises and break into the formal economy. North India ranks particularly low when it comes to numbers of women-owned businesses. Developed in close collaboration with and funded by U.S. Embassy India and delivered in partnership with Dhriiti, the WE Can: Workshop and Business Plan Competition for Women Entrepreneurs worked to support young women entrepreneurs in this region to realise their potential.

Working across five cities (Delhi, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Jaipur and Lucknow), the project was instrumental in empowering 150 young women entrepreneurs to build the confidence and capability they need to manage and grow sustainable businesses.

The project provided five days of intensive business training, followed by six weeks of mentoring. Twenty-five women then went on to receive incubation support to kick start their businesses, including one-on-one coaching, advanced business training, as well as links to networks, markets and financial services. In addition, five enterprises with high growth potential were awarded a start-up package including a cash prize and ongoing advice from business experts.

‘With the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the Mann Deshi Foundation is working to empower women by providing vital access to capital and market linkages. This project aims to increase women entrepreneurs’ ability to start and scale their businesses, giving them skills, ability, and access to financial services.’
– Mark E. Azua, Director of Programs, North India Office, U.S. Embassy India

Partners

Donate

Empowering women is one of the smartest investments we can make. Financial independence gives women choices. It enables women to spend more on their families, drive growth in their economies and inspire others in their communities.

Please support our vital work by making a donation, and help us build a safer, more equal world for generations to come.

The Cherie Blair Foundation website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

disable

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Cookie Policy

Cherie Blair Foundation

Website cookie policy

1) Cookies and similar technologies

A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your computer or electronic device when you access our website. Similar technologies include web beacons, action tags, local shared objects (‘flash cookies’) and single-pixel gifs. Such technologies can be used to track users’ actions and activities, and to store information about them. We use these cookies and/or similar technologies on this website for the following purposes:

Customising your experience

Storing your preferences

Increasing site speed

Preventing fraudulent activity

Improving security

2) Information collected

The information we obtain from our use of cookies will not usually contain your personal data. While we may obtain information about your computer or any other electronic device which you use to access our website, such as your IP address, your browser and/or other internet log information, this information will not usually identify you personally.

In certain circumstances we may also collect personal information about you but only where you voluntarily provide it (e.g by completing an online form) or where you purchase goods or services from us.

3) Consent for cookies

In most cases we will need your consent in order to use cookies on this website. The exception is where the cookie is essential in order for us to provide you with a service you have requested, or essential to the inherent functionality of the website.

When a user first visits our site there is a pop-up notice which describes how we use cookies and which also provides a link to our website privacy policy. If you use this website after this notification has been displayed to you, we will assume that you consent to our use of cookies for the purposes described in this website cookie policy and our website privacy policy.

4) Third-party cookies

We work with third party suppliers who may also set cookies on our website. These cookies and their third party owners, are included in the table below. These third party suppliers are responsible for the cookies they set on our site. If you want further information please go to the website for the relevant third party.

5) Cookies and similar technologies used on this website

The following cookies/similar technologies are used on this website:

Third Party Cookies:

Google Analytics – to track site traffic and traffic sourcesTwitter – To enable integration between our site and Twitter

6) How to turn off cookies

You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the websites below tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, some of our website features may not function as a result.

For further information on cookies generally visit aboutcookies.org or the Information Commissioner’s webpage on cookies ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/